But back when Ryan Hinds picked out jersey No. 34 for the first time, he had no idea he would one day find himself playing safety for the Edmonton Eskimos.

Heck, he didn’t really even see it coming before arriving for training camp on June 1.

“I kind of heard rumblings about it, but you never know, you hear a lot of things in the off-season that you never know which to believe and which not to,” said Hinds, whose first clue came when the Eskimos released Donovan Alexander, their starting safety for the past three seasons. “I heard about it, tried to prep for it. It really kind of hit me when I walked in the door and they said: ‘Safety.’ ”

Which is as far away as he could get from where he started lining up in the backfield during his early football days.